Our Approach

Cliffside Malibu is a world class luxury drug and alcohol treatment center. We want you to recover for good, and we do that with seven major factors.

1. We Stand By Our Commitment To Your Success.

Our main goal is: We only want you to come to treatment once.

2. We Recognize The Root Cause Of Addiction As Pain/Trauma.

Most treatment programs are based on the 12 Step Model. While 12 Step programs have largely been the go-to way to recover from addiction for over 75 years, the model does not address the underlying causes of addiction. While we use 12 Steps as an adjunct to other forms of therapy, we work to help through pre-existing traumas that are the root cause of addiction.

3. We Use The Stages Of Change Model As The Foundation Of Our Treatment Protocol.

Every person who enters Cliffside Malibu is assessed and placed in one of the Stages of Change. More on that below.

4. We Do Not Believe Or Treat You As If You Are Diseased.

Addiction is largely touted as a disease that cannot be cured, and only managed. We do not focus on what is wrong with you – we focus on what is right with you and help bring those qualities to the forefront.

5. We Understand And Use The Neuroscience Of Addiction To Help People Recover.

Addiction is a science: not only does it affect your brain psychologically, it can chemically alter it. Once you are able to address the science of addiction in this way, you will be able to see substantial change in your life. We use neuroscience to tackle these with industry-leading professionals.

6. We Use Individualized, Holistic Therapies In Conjunction With Psychotherapy.

The treatment plan you recieve upon entering Cliffside Malibu is yours, and only yours. Everything is tailored to each specific person’s needs. We use holistic therapies in conjunction with evidence-based therapies to help align your mind, body and spirit together.

7. We Address Co-Occurring Disorders.

Many clients who enter Cliffside Malibu also suffer from an array of other disorders, such as anxiety and depression. When using evidence-based therapies in conjunction with holistic therapies, clients are able to treat the underlying root traumas and issues of their addiction to lead a healthy, happy life.

What to expect at Cliffside Malibu

Upon entering Cliffside Malibu, each patient is carefully assessed and a custom treatment plan is created for not only their detox needs, but for their treatment for long-lasting recovery as well. Each patient is then matched with one of these five stages of the Transtheoretical Model: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action and Maintenance. An individualized treatment plan is created based on their current stage of change. This process is in place to ensure that all our patients receive the best treatment path possible for their own specific need. Our goal is to move individuals through their treatment by assessing their readiness for change and formulating stage-matched interventions in order to move them through their respective stage.

It is the policy of Cliffside Malibu to ensure that all individuals who present with chemical dependency issues are assessed for the appropriate level of care. We strive to provide continuum of care including medically supervised detox, residential treatment, day treatment and outpatient services. Services are provided to individuals with a primary diagnosis of substance abuse and/or alcohol addiction. Individuals seeking treatment are assessed by qualified staff to ensure program criteria are met and that each individual admitted is placed in the appropriate level of care for treatment. The program is designed and structured for individuals who are in need of a supportive environment in order to maintain Sobriety.

The Stages of Change

Two researchers at the University of Rhode Island named Prochaska and DiClemente deciphered that there are 6 stages individuals go through and experience while seeking addiction, going through recovery and ultimately maintaining sobriety. These stages became a model known as “The Stages of Change”, which we base our individualized treatment plans on at Cliffside Malibu.

Finding your stage in the Stages of Change model that we find you where you are mentally, physically, and spiritually. It helps us help help you to overcome the issues that have caused your addiction to grow to what it has become. Utilizing a carefully selected array of therapies and incorporating The Stages of Change model throughout your program means you will have the best cutting-edge, evidence-based treatment experience you can possibly find anywhere in the world.

The States of Change are broken down into:

  • Precontemplation – Not ready. A person in this stage is still deep in the throes of addiction without any sense of how bad it may be.
  • Contemplation – Getting ready. At this stage, a person knows that their addiction is becoming a problem and recognizes they need to stop, or even that they need help to stop.
  • Preparation – Ready. At this point, a person is organizing a plan to get help.
  • Action – Making specific efforts. This means a person may enter a rehab program.
  • Maintenance – In the final step, a person is able to sustain Action for at least six months and are actively working to prevent relapse.

This model addresses every stage possible that a person with substance use disorder will experience while on the road from deep addiction to long lasting recovery for a healthy, happy life. It is heavily guided by therapy in order to be successful. It is critical to attend therapy to acquire the tools necessary to be able to maintain sobriety. Therapy and recovery options come in many shapes and sizes and we can assist in choosing what is right for you.

Medicated-Assisted Detox

Detoxing is one of the very first steps in the recovery process. Once the body has become dependent on a substance for a long period of time, their brain can become chemically altered to require the substance. When the substance is no longer supplied, such as in beginning treatment, withdrawal symptoms begin immediately and are often highly uncomfortable. Cliffside Malibu offers medication to help ease these symptoms.

Medicated-Assisted Detox is the simply defined as the use of medications to help treat the symptoms of detoxification from substance use disorders including opioids, alcohol abuse and more. Cliffside Malibu takes great care in ensuring that this process is as comfortable and stress-free as possible, since detoxification can be an uncomfortable and feared part of the process of recovery.

Research shows that addiction treatment medications can provide very effective treatment for some patients. These medications work by reducing the effects of certain drugs, opioids and alcohol. They can block certain receptors, or give a low dose of the substance (which eventually tapers off) to help with the physical symptoms of detox. It can also help curb cravings, which is often an annoying distraction and could eventually lead to relapse. This is why medicated-assisted detox helps make for a more comfortable detoxification process, so that the patient can then focus on beginning therapy and work on their sobriety.

There are many physical symptoms of detoxification. Some of these include:

  • Sweating
  • Flushing
  • Anxiety
  • Nausea & Vomiting
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Headache
  • Muscle aches or pains

The medications used to treat these symptoms can include:

  • Suboxone
  • Probuphine
  • Naloxone
  • Disulfiram

Holistic Therapies

At Cliffside, we use holistic therapy to complement traditional treatment practices. Holistic therapy can be defined as non-medicinal recovery methods. They aim to bring the mind, body and spirit into alignment while focusing on the patient’s overall well-being. It also aids in treating physical symptoms of addiction and withdrawal.

This type of therapy, in conjunction with evidence-based therapy, can be very beneficial to addiction treatment because they can be calming, healing outlets to use in place of old behaviors. They support the constant growth of each patient – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It helps to find the root of the issue, not just “Band-aid” the symptoms of addiction.

Holistic therapy programs feature personalized, non-medical treatments to treat all of the physical and mental addiction symptoms. Addiction can often leave patients in poor health, including improper sleep schedule and diet. More of these can include:

  • Lack of sleep
  • Poor diet
  • Emotional stress
  • Weight gain
  • Weight loss
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Anger
  • Lack of spiritual grounding
  • Lack of exercise

Holistic therapy helps with these symptoms by doing the following:

  • Finding the underlying causes of a patient’s addiction
  • Promoting regular exercise
  • Strengthening the patient’s resistance to cravings
  • Promoting a proper sleep schedule
  • Increasing the patient’s self esteem

Continuum of Care

Cliffside Malibu is all-encompassing, in that we care very much about your health after leaving our facility. We are happy to support you in aftercare, which is a concept we utilize called Continuum of Care. Continuum of Care involves guiding and tracking patients over a period of time through a comprehensive array of health services and spanning all levels and intensity of care. Depending on the need, Continuum of Care can be from birth to end of life for all levels and stages of care. It also includes both the services and the mechanisms of the integration of care.

Services can be broken down into the basic 7 categories which are:

  • Extended care
  • Hospital care
  • Ambulatory care
  • Home care
  • Outreach
  • Wellness
  • Housing

The mechanisms can be broken down into 4 basic categories:

  • Planning and management
  • Care coordination
  • Case-based financing
  • Integrated information systems

The term “Continuum of Care” can also be described as getting from illness to wellness, and we oversee the entire process. When clinicians, including Cliffside use this term, we are recommending that the treatment should include a gradual transitioning of the physiological, psychological, and spiritual states from an unhealthy chemical dependency to a healthy state.

Addiction is not as simple as an acute illness or a broken bone. A chemical dependency is defined as a chronic and progressive disease. This means that it can be stopped or halted, but it can never be cured. It also means that if left untreated, it can get more serious and could eventually lead to death.

It can be a challenge to convince someone we love that they are a person with substance use disorder, or come to the realization ourselves, but it can be even harder to convince someone once they find out that the treatment can go on for a very long time. It seems like a very long commitment, and people can become complacent with their addiction. One of the more difficult tasks of a chemical dependency counselor is convincing a patient of their need for ongoing care once primary treatment is done.

Industry-Leading Professionals

Cliffside Malibu employs industry-leading professionals to help you along your journey to a healthy, happy, sober life. One of the many that we have is an Addictionologist. An addictionologist is defined as a specialist in the diagnosis, study, and treatment of dependence. They are addiction medicine physicians and addiction psychiatrists who hold either board certification in addiction medicine from:

  • The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM)
  • Subspecialty board certification in addiction psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN)
  • Board certification in addiction medicine from the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM)
  • Or a Certificate of Added Qualification in Addiction Medicine conferred by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA)

Some of their job skills include the examination of patients, prevention from addiction continuing, screening of patients, intervention skills and treatment.

If a patient stops drinking alcohol or taking prescription painkillers cold-turkey, this could potentially pose some serious health risks. Detoxing alone can be dangerous not only because of these complications, but also because it can quickly lead to relapse due to the severity of the symptoms and cravings. People usually “give up” during this period and give into their cravings and discomfort, so it is important to find a treatment center with these resources to help you through it.

Learn more about Cliffside

If you are looking to find out more about what Cliffside Malibu has to offer, give us a call or schedule a tour.